Serena Williams- the feisty lady of tennis.

Serena Williams- the feisty lady of tennis.

Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned. And so it was that this week the world of tennis was shaken to its foundations by another outraged outburst. The woman at the heart of this unfortunate flare up took it upon herself to once again remind any of those doubting Thomases that women should never ever be questioned, challenged or just taken for granted.

At a crucial point of her US Open match against Naomi Osaka Serena Williams, still very much acclaimed as the golden girl of world tennis, threw her toys out of the pram, spat out the proverbial dummy, demanded a packet of sweets and then sobbed her heart out because, quite clearly, nobody was listening to her. She'd poured out her heart, bawled out her frustrations and then lifted the pitch of her voice even higher. When everybody seems out to get you, conspiracy theories are an easy excuse.

For years now Williams has dominated global tennis alongside her loyal sister Venus. She's cleaned up at Wimbledon, travelled the world and then conquered a vast majority of that world. The tennis courts have almost been Williams absolute dominion and there are few who would deny that when Serena Williams is at the top of her game, her opponents may just as well be invisible.

But when you get on the wrong side of Williams and the decisions are not quite as clear as they should be, then the darker side to her character leaps out of her mouth and you'd be well advised to keep a respectful distance from her. When an umpire named Carlos Ramos had taken more than he could endure, Williams flipped and the red mist began to descend like a thick fog.

Apparently Williams has a previous record on such matters and many an umpire and innocent official has suffered the backlash of what sounded like a maliciously verbal attack on Ramos. There were no obscenities as such nor foul mouthed invective designed to humiliate but the message was loud and clear. Cross her at your peril and she'll launch several rather colourful rockets in your direction.

Now we all know by now that Williams has recently become a mother again and the hormones may be raging, kicking and bobbing around in her body. But surely the lines have to be drawn now. Williams spilled out a whole reference book of very personal insults, direct accusations and questioning of the umpires competence.

All might have been forgiven had Williams just left things to drop after perhaps a couple of seconds but the rant went on and on like an old, cracked vinyl record. Williams said that Ramos was a thief, liar and a wholly reprehensible individual. These crass remarks were by no means without precedent but Williams somewhat childish behaviour left an unnecessarily dark stain on one of the finest of sports.

Then, not content with her babbling, blustering tirade, Williams kept going at a by now blistering pace. She once again brought out of the cupboard those familiar defence mechanisms. There were the inevitable remarks about racism, discrimination, misogyny, women's rights, equality and blatant unfairness. She pointed fingers, jabbed fingers, stared angrily at Ramos and then blurted out another set of well prepared comments that eventually sounded like a persecution complex. Why was the world always picking on her when they should be starting on somebody else?

You cast your mind back to the days when the likes of Martina Navratilova and Billy Jean King were the female champions of fair pay and conditions. Navratilova fought her corner with feisty persistence and determined vigour on the court itself. Of course she was the undoubted queen of Wimbledon for a number of years but when the vultures intermittently circled around her, she would launch into a very vocal and measured commentary where no holds were barred and everything was up for debate.

This may not be the most appropriate time to join in on the soapbox of criticism against Williams but what remains is a rather sour taste in the mouth, a sense that here is one of the world's richest of sportswomen fiercely at odds with officialdom because, for whatever reason, the moon was in the wrong position or maybe her dad Richard may have been unavailable for comment or maybe he was and nobody was watching at the time.

At her best of course Serena Williams is a force of nature, the very model of supple athleticism with a competitive drive and will to win that is matchless.  Her all court, baseline game is liberally laced with  heroic chases from one tram line to the other, lunging and miraculous forehand returns, powerful drives, beautifully judged lobs from every part of the court and a volcanic blast of the ball when drilling her cross court shots beyond her opponent. Of course the back hand winners should never be forgotten because Williams knows everything there is to know about placement and timing.

And yet earlier on this week Williams seemed to let the side down with her school sixth form lectures to those in authority and her offensive conduct on the court. In the bigger picture Williams has not committed a heinous crime and only suffered a £13, 000 fine for her indiscretions. The fact is though that tennis might have briefly wished that it had looked away for a moment or two, slightly shame faced and chastened but nonetheless confident that no lasting damage had been done to its reputation.

We also remembered a rather annoyed gentleman during the late 1970s and 80s who kicked up a fuss because once again people were ganging up on him and nobody liked him. When a certain John Mcenroe gave vent to his feelings the whole of South West London may well have heard him. Mcenroe, we thought, was just a bad loser, an irascible bear with a sore head, a grumpy young man with an inflated ego, wealthy parents and a thick streak of rebellion that refused to just let it go.

None of us will ever forget those gigantic explosions on court when Mcenroe was convinced that the world was, quite literally against him. He slammed his rackets on the ground like an incensed six year old at a birthday party, broke rackets with the most ferocious temper, argued ridiculously with umpires about the legitimacy of dubious shots and then threatened to take the whole of Centre Court to the High Court if they didn't obey his requests.

We all know of course that bad and disreputable behaviour in any sporting arena should never be condoned by any fair thinking spectator. Besides, what on earth can anything be gained in the breaking of the laws of the game and an appalling disregard for the rules and regulations. It may be that Williams had stepped out of line on one too many an occasion and she may want to think again the next time she boils over.

Perhaps now should be the time to let the dust settle on a week that could have gone seriously wrong for tennis but only disturbed a small minority of those who simply frown on indecent language in a sporting theatre. Somewhere out there the voice of reason is out there crying out for commonsense. It's been a very good year for sport so far. Surely the whole Serena Williams banal sideshow has to be regarded with the contempt it rightly deserves. Tennis, most certainly, deserves better.